Projects and activities involving multiple pieces are often difficult and time-consuming to clean up. This is especially true when there are hundreds of small pieces. Most often, the articles are stored in containers and then dumped out for use. When it is time to stop participating in the activity, the articles are put back into the container. If the participant is a child, the clean-up process can cause frustration for both the child and the child's care-giver.
Examples of activities involving numerous small articles include: building sets, bead making, crafts, painting, clay modeling, personal grooming such as manicures, make-up, etc., household repairs, auto repairs, machinery repair, board games, puzzles, train sets, and the like. Examples of small articles include dolls, marbles, jacks, beads, puzzles, Christmas decorations, and the like. Examples of containers that can hold numerous small articles include lunch boxes, picnic baskets.
Storage containers, play mats, and work mats of various sizes and configurations exist for toys, crafts, and tools. These containers and mats lack a combination of features that make them easily convertible among different configurations, packageable for retail, stackable, and able to capture many articles without the possibility of the articles hindering or obstructing the conversion process.
Thus, there is a need for a collapsible device that has the aforementioned and other features. The present invention address this and other needs.